In a traditional printing environment, users operating computers interconnected via closed computer networks such as local area networks (LANs) may submit documents generated by applications running on their computers to be rendered on output devices connected to the networks, such as printers, plotters, and the like. In today's fast-paced mobile business environment, this limited printing solution is no longer satisfactory. While legacy printing technologies certainly have advanced to output document faster with higher resolution, improved quality, and color, there has been little effort to develop a printing technology that fits today's mobile workforce.
In today's mobile business environment, many printing scenarios occur that were not considered or addressed by developers of traditional printing environments. For example, consider the following situations. Can a business developer submit a needed agreement stored on his company's home network to a printer in a partner's network while preparing to discuss a business deal at the partner's office? Can a traveling sales representative print her presentation slides to a nearby printer rather easily, even if she doesn't even have the presentation slide document with her? Can a Bluetooth handset user walk into a room, detect the presence of a Bluetooth capable printer, and print a document by reference to a nearby printer even though the printer is not Bluetooth-enabled? Can an instant messaging user drag and drop a document to his buddy's printer list to print the document? Can a venture capitalist in an airport print a needed document at his home office using only his cell phone? It would be advantageous to provide a printing solution for each of these situations, and other similar scenarios.